CHRIST AS THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT
INDWELLING THE BELIEVERS IN THEIR SPIRIT
Christ as the life-giving Spirit indwells the believers in their spirit. First, as the life-giving Spirit, Christ regenerated us in our spirit. Now He dwells in our spirit (Rom. 8:9-11; 2 Tim. 4:22). It is a wonderful fact that Christ is not only in us, but He also dwells in us.
For a person to dwell in a room means that he occupies it and fills it with his activities. Moreover, a person accomplishes many of his intentions in his own home. Although I have a very adequate office in which to do my work, I do not like to work there; rather, I like to work in my home. While I am dwelling in my home, I work. The Lord Jesus today only has a home; He does not have an office. His home is His office. The Lord’s office is within us. Many of us may realize that the Lord Jesus has made us His home, but not many realize that, as the Lord’s home, we are also His office.
The Lord Jesus not only dwells in us as His home, but He also works within us. He is carrying out all His work within us. Because He has many things to do within us, He is working in us twenty-four hours a day. We all need to realize that today the Lord Jesus indwells us, making us His home and also His office. He is working within us as His office. What a wonderful thought this is! Our Lord dwells in us, and while He dwells in us, He works. He has made us His home and His office as well. This is the organic union which we have with Christ. We all need to know Christ in such a living way.
CHRIST MAKING HIS HOME IN THE BELIEVERS’ HEARTS
Christ is making His home in the believers’ hearts through the Spirit’s strengthening them into their spirit, that is, into their inner man (Eph. 3:16-17). The strangest thing, and also the sweetest and most enjoyable thing, is that within us, the believers in Christ, there is always a kind of strengthening. Continually, both day and night, we are being strengthened from within. It is this inward strengthening which enables us to say, "Lord Jesus, I love You. Lord, occupy me and fill me up. I desire to be possessed and taken over by You. I want to be fully occupied by You. Lord, I simply want to be one with You." We fail to realize that this strengthening has a direction, that is, that Christ would make His own home in our entire being. By this inward strengthening, gradually we will say, "Lord Jesus, fill me with Yourself and possess me in my mind, my emotions, and my will. Fill and possess me in every part, in every avenue, of my inward being." This is to allow Christ to make His home in our whole being. This is the fullness of the organic union which we have with Christ, a union in which we are fully united with Christ in an organic way.
CHRIST AS THE HEAD OF THE BODY
AND THE BELIEVERS AS THE MEMBERS OF THE BODY
BEING JOINED TOGETHER TO BE
THE GREAT, UNIVERSAL NEW MAN
Eventually, Christ as the Head of the Body (Col. 1:18a) and the believers as the members of the Body (Eph. 5:30) are joined together to be the great, universal new man (Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10-11). In the organic union, Christ becomes the Head of the universal new man, and we the believers all are the members of this great, universal new man. He is the Head and we all are the members. He and we, we and He, are organically united together to be one complete and perfect universal new man. In such an organic union we live together with Him, move together with Him, and work together with Him. Christ and we have only one purpose, one goal, and one aim. This is the ultimate consummation in full of our organic union with Him.
(The Secret of Experiencing Christ, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
